Day 4 thru 7 – Aci Trezza
5/18 –
Pamm drives us into town; I needed a break after my
experience with yesterday’s Formula One road warrior course… We are driving towards
Catania and then up the coast to Aci Trezza, which is very close to Mount
Etna. It was incredible site to see as
it got closer and closer out the car window.
It actually had snow at the top and at the same time there was smoke bellowing
out of the volcano.
Another great hotel find by ‘travel agent’ Marilee, right on
the water with a brilliant view of the Ionic Sea and the lava stone formations
of the Cyclops. This is the town on the
Cyclops…
After a siesta, we freshen up to prepare for dinner. This shower was not like the luxurious one at
the last hotel, it was back to the small and cramped Italian shower stall. This one had an additional charm of an
incredibly slow drain, so you had to keep your shower short else the shower
stall would flood the rest of the bathroom. No
dilly-dallying around in here, just wash – rinse – but DO NOT REPEAT!
We walked into the main square of town and fell in love with
every inch of it. It is an old fishing
village, and we are here before tourist season.
The town is ours…
Artichokes are in season!
We found a place for dinner, Il Nespolo. Actually, it found us or rather their waiter
did. The waiter came out of the door and
drew us in with his insistence that they had the best seafood and pasta for the
best price. He said his name is Pepo,
which he said translates to Josepe, which translates to Joseph and in America
they just call him Joe. We call him
Pepo. It was a slow night and he stuck
to us like glue. He loves American music
– Tom Jones, Celine Dion, the Beatles, and sang to us the whole night. He didn't leave our table during dinner
except to pick up an order, to talk to other customers, or to talk to people
walking by restaurant. He even took calls on his cell phone! This man is a riot…
He was right, the food was great – the house wine was the
best thus far in Sicily – and the mussel's were the best I have ever had. We tried to get him to leave so we could eat
in peace but to no avail, at one point he sat down at the table to hear our
travel stories. There was also a young
waiter working there, he was 19 - a true Sicilian beauty who didn’t speak English
except for the word “Ok”. Pamm told him that I am single and rich. From then on every time he came by our table - and each time we saw him throughout the course of our stay - he’d smile and just
keep winking at me. (how much for
the little boy???)
As we finished up with dinner a young couple was leaving the
restaurant, an American military man and his Sicilian girlfriend. Pepo told him we were American’s and introduced
us all as if we were guests in his home, which in a way we were. The military man said he was a Doctor and a
Pilot, he’s been stationed here for 2 years and this was, in fact, the best
restaurant in town. He professed his
love for Pepo and said everyone in town knows him. At that moment, a guy comes by the restaurant
asking Pepo for a cigarette - - - Pepo asks if we have one – we say no so he
sends he guy away.
We finish our meal and try to leave, but we must promise to
return to him. He wants us to eat there
again tomorrow and every night. He insists
that we must see him again because he must make sure that we have a good time in his
town.
5/19 -
After breakfast I sat on our balcony and watch a
construction production at the residence next door. Workers are expanding the house’s front gate
entrance, which includes removing some of the stone wall on either side of it
and then putting a new layer of cement on the threshold. There are 6 men working on this project, one
of which is a very old man that lives in the house. Every guy has a job – one operates the drill
that is cutting the stone, another holds the extension cord to the drill,
another holds the different drill bits that may be needed, another sweeps up
the cement and puts in it trash bags, another loads the full trash bags into
their small truck, and the old man that lives in the house just seems to be
shouting orders. They all have their own important individual
tasks to perform and they work in concert with one another to make it seem like
a flawless choreographed dance. Their work is occasionally interrupted by townspeople who drive by and inspect their
progress. It is fascinating to
watch. There is no “Men Working” sign
posted – none is needed…
As I was watching the construction, Pamm took a siesta and
Marilee gathered up our dirty clothes and went in search of a Laundromat. It had to be same day service as tomorrow is
Sunday and everything will be closed – and we fly back to Pisa very early on
Monday. She came back to the hotel, told
us our laundry will be ready at 6pm and it costs 46 euro… What?
46 euro? Are you kidding me? I had my laundry done in Rome for 10
euro… We decide to deal with this
probable rip-off artist later when we go to pick up our clothes.
We walked to the town square to find a place for lunch. We passed Pepo’s restaurant. He saw us coming and tried to convince us to
eat there but we declined and can only get away after we promised to stop by
and see him later. We finally settled on
a place and had fried calamari (it was huge and had been swimming in the ocean
the night before), crostini with mayo (!) and crushed pistachios, fries and a
salad. And the house wine of course,
there must always wine – it is so dam good!
We walked off our lunch by exploring the harbor. I am thinking of my brother John (Chief
Waverka, US Coast Guard, retired), my Dad and Johnny “smile when you say that”
Pritsch as I look out at the beautiful water and all the boats.
The water is crystal clear and you can see all the way to
the sea floor. Don’t believe me? This is a photo I took standing on the harbor
and looking straight down. The water was
10-15 feet deep.
We then employed a local sailor to take us on a boat ride so
we could get a closer look at the rocks of the Cyclops.
Since we had worked off lunch, we stopped for a little Gelato. Pedro ordered chocolate – we
told him it was too much, but he insisted he could handle it.
Apparently not...
We took a walk to the center of town to work off the latest
round of caloric intake and found, much to our surprise, that we were in the
minority. The town square was full of
men, hardly any women, and boy did we know it. They
were watching our every move…
I told Pamm I wanted to get some photos and asked her to go
stand somewhere close to them but not to arouse suspicion. She
did the unheard of - she walked right in and sat on a bench with one of
them! You should have heard the
commotion from the other gentlemen. Great balls of fire - we had stuck a nerve! I wish I could have understood what they were
saying; I bet they are still talking about those 3 crazy American women. But we charmed them, as we always do, and
they even allowed a few photos.
That guy in the sunglasses – I won him over when I showed
him the photo. He even smiled at me and
then I believe I was officially dismissed…
It was getting close to 6p so we headed to the Laundromat to
get our clothes and confront the person we thought was ripping us off. Turns out it was actually a very small Dry
Cleaning shop run by an absolutely lovely woman. When we questioned the price, she explained (all in rapid
Italian of course) that hers is a small shop; she has a small machine and did
all the labor by herself, all day, just so she could have our clothes
ready. She then proceeded to show us
every single piece of our clothing and how clean each piece was. Well that
explained it. All of our clothes, including our underwear and socks, had been
dry cleaned and in less than 8 hours… No
rip off, the mistake was ours.
The woman than showed us every picture hanging on her wall
and told us about each of them. One was
of women washing clothes by hand on the rocks of the harbor. She laughed and said in English “the good
old days – Si? NO!!!” Then she showed us
the other people’s clothes hanging in her shop that she had dry cleaned,
many of which were military uniforms.
Then she showed us the stitching she had done by hand, and then she
pulled out a needlepoint she was working on. On and on and on it went. She was showing us her craft so as to assure
us that her price was fair and that she had worked very hard for it. By the end of the 20 minute exchange, we were
all the best of friends. Shoot, I was
ready to give her more euros…
She folded all of our clothes back up, delicately put them
in a bag, gave it to us and then hugged us, kissed our cheeks, shook our hands
and we became her friends for life. When
we left she followed us out of the shop, waving and yelling “Ciao –
Arrivederci” as we walked away. This
kept on until we were out of sight of her shop. What a doll she was… Later when we changed for dinner, all of us
commented on how great our freshly dry cleaned underwear felt! I recommend everyone try it at least once –
you haven’t really lived until you wear dry cleaned underwear.
We head back out towards the center of town (are you getting
the picture that it is a really small town?) in search of a light dinner. We’ve got pizza on our minds. Of course we pass Pepo’s restaurant and he
comes barreling out of the door to see his American girlfriends. Why can’t we stay? His is the best restaurant! We explain we’re looking for pizza – WAIT –
he knows the best place in town. It’s on the square. He tells us exactly where
to go and who to ask for – the husband of his cousin. But that’s not enough, NO! He calls the restaurant, talks to his
cousin’s husband and makes reservations for us.
He tells the cousin we are his good friends and that we must be treated
well and we need the best table!
When we get to the restaurant, we tell them Pepo sent us and
we are directed to our table, which is in a prime spot. There is a piece of paper on the table that
says “Reserved for 3 American women”.
Pepo was right, the pizza was delicious - as was the house wine.
We passed by Pepo on the way back to our hotel, he needed a
full report of dinner and asked that we come back to see him again before we
leave.
5/20 –
It’s our last full day in Sicily and the weather is cloudy
and overcast. We decide to take a drive
up the coast and found a great small place on the water to have lunch. We had
another great meal as we watched a cruise ship ferry passengers from the boat
to the coast line. Marilee said she saw
the tipped over cruise ship from her airplane window on their flight into Rome. This is how a cruise ship is supposed to look
in the water:
During our drive we stop at 2 more Pharmacies for more cold
medicine because the cold that I had so lovingly passed onto Pamm, I had now
passed onto Marilee as well and it was hitting us hard. All 3 of us are now doing the Italian
Alka-Seltzer fizzy cold tablets 3 times a day, cough syrup and cough drops. And tissues we were going through – my god the tissues!!
Later that night, Marilee stays in and Pamm and I head to
town for one last dinner. We need to
have one more taste of this incredible seafood.
We stop by to ask Pepo for a recommendation for light seafood and
outdoor seating. He offers us their front
terrace that has a 2-seater table. We
take it and order the anti-pasta, which here at the coast consists of a few
small plates of different fresh fish. We also order a small plate of mussel's and, of course, the house wine. The slices
of salmon and tuna were so thin you could see the plate underneath them. The tuna literally melted on your
tongue. Then anchovies in olive oil, then
fried sardines along with the smallest baby squids we’d ever seen. They looked like miny octopus. Delicious!!!
Pedro enjoyed the food as well.
Our night was made complete by the visit of two young girls,
Micol and Giada. Micol was celebrating
her 6th birthday at the restaurant and Giada (10) was her older
cousin. The saw us sitting on the
terrace and once they found out how to get to us and we said “ciao” – they were
on us like bread crumbs on fried sardines.
We laughed and joked and sang songs and the little one even tried to
steal Pedro. Giada is taking English in
school (which all Italian children are required to do) and enjoyed getting a
chance to practice it with us. And we
were very glad to have in interrupter for the little one who talked a mile a
minute. They charmed us and won our
hearts.
Their parents finally reclaimed them as it was very late and time for them to leave. The girls gave us hugs
and kisses and continue to wave and throw kisses from the street until they
were out of site. The very last thing we
heard Micol shout (in her cute little 6 year old Italian voice) was “I’m sorry
I could not stay longer.” Who could ask
for a better closing line than that…
We closed up with Pepo, took a photo, then hugs and kisses and
promised to “friend” him on Facebook.
5/21 –
We got up with the sun to hit the road to the airport to fly
back to Pisa. Once there we hopped a
train to Grosseto, were picked up by Pamm’s cousin Laura and then to the family
compound to give Pina and Aimone a hug and pick up our rental car. We will see Pina, Aimone and all the cousins again
before Pamm and Marilee leave Italy, but for now we head back to our favorite
Tuscany town, Semproniano, for some R&R.
Closing remarks – if you have Italy on your “bucket list”
and are a fan of seafood, or great red wine, or incredibly tasting olive oil, I
highly recommend you make a side trip to Sicily. Skip the mountain towns if you must, but hit
the coast – go to Aci Trezza. It is
worth every penny in your piggy bank.
And if you find Pepo, tell him that his 3 American girlfriends sent you…
Ciao!
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